Hydro-Tussin HG News

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 16, 2017 – Alternative drug-free interventions to manage pain, including acupuncture and electrotherapy, may help reduce the need for prescription painkillers after knee replacement surgery, a new review suggests. "As prescription opioid use is under national scrutiny and because surgery has been identified as an avenue for addiction, it is important to recognize effective alternatives to standard pharmacological therapy, which remains the first option for treatment," the study team wrote. The finding stems from an in-depth look at 39 already-completed studies. These studies included nearly 2,400 total knee replacement patients. The studies looked at a number of different alternative treatments, including acupuncture and electrotherapy (the use of electrical energy to stimulate nerves and muscles). The researchers also included studies of cryotherapy (involving the ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 16, 2017 – Painkiller prescriptions that lead to prolonged opioid use tend to be written by doctors in outpatient settings, not hospitals, new research indicates. Initial use of opioids such as OxyContin (oxycodone) and Vicodin (hydrocodone) is most often tied to spine and orthopedic disorders, but not surgery, said researcher and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Andrew Schoenfeld of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Moreover, addictive painkiller use is often not the recommended course of treatment for these conditions, he added. "In light of the opioid crisis, we thought it was important to investigate the extent to which spine surgical interventions were responsible for initiating a process that culminates in sustained opioid drug use," Schoenfeld said. The findings – based on more than 100,000 insured Americans – go against the commonly held notion that chronic opioid ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 16, 2017 – The rate of opioid drug overdose deaths among older teenagers in the United States has taken a turn for the worse, a new federal report finds. The number of drug overdose deaths among 15- to 19-year-olds rose 15 percent for males from 2014 to 2015 and 35 percent for females from 2013 to 2015, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the disturbing numbers may not simply be a case of the well-publicized epidemic of opioid painkiller abuse spreading to another age group. "These trends fit into the overall picture: Overdose of opioid pills is the bigger problem among middle age and older age groups, while heroin and heroin contaminated by fentanyl are a huge problem among younger people," said Dr. Daniel Ciccarone, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies drug use. The report, from the ... Read more

FRIDAY, Aug. 11, 2017 – There's been a sharp rise in opioid-related admissions and deaths in hospital intensive care units across the United States, a new study finds. Opioids are pain medications, such as oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet) and hydrocodone (Vicoprofen). "This study tells us that the opioid epidemic has made people sicker and killed more people, in spite of all the care we can provide in the ICU, including mechanical ventilation, acute dialysis, life support and round-the-clock care," said study lead author Dr. Jennifer Stevens. She is associate director of the medical intensive care unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. For the study, researchers reviewed data from nearly 23 million adult hospital admissions. The admissions were from 162 hospitals in 44 states. They occurred from 2009 to 2015. From this group, the investigators identified almost 22,000 ... Read more

THURSDAY, Aug. 11, 2017 – President Donald Trump said Thursday that his administration is preparing to declare the opioid crisis a national emergency. Such a move would offer state and federal agencies more resources and power to combat the epidemic, CNN reported. "The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I am saying, officials, right now, it is an emergency. It is a national emergency," Trump said while on vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. "We are going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis." "We are going to draw it up, and we are going to make it a national emergency. It's a serious problem, the likes of which we have never had," he added. Trump's statement came two days after the release of a federal report that said drug overdose deaths continue to climb in the United States, despite efforts to combat the nation's ongoing opioid ... Read more

TUESDAY, Aug. 8, 2017 – Drug overdose deaths continue to climb in the United States, despite efforts to combat the nation's ongoing opioid addiction crisis, a new federal report states. The drug overdose death rate reached 19.9 cases for every 100,000 people during the late summer of 2016, compared with 16.7 cases per 100,000 the year before, the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) stated in its quarterly mortality report. The 12-month overdose death rate also showed an increase. The rate was 18.5 overdose deaths per 100,000 people for the 12-month period ending in September 2016, compared with 16.1 deaths per 100,000 during the same period a year before, the NCHS said. The increase shows that drug deaths have continued to rise from 2015, which itself had been a record-breaking year for overdose deaths. A total 52,404 people died from overdose in 2015, a 75 percent ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 2, 2017 – More U.S. babies go through drug withdrawal after birth these days, and researchers say doctors' prescribing practices are partly to blame. Moms-to-be who take prescription opioid painkillers plus psychiatric drugs for depression or anxiety have a 30 to 60 percent greater risk of giving birth to an infant in withdrawal than those taking opioids alone, researchers found. Moreover, use of two or more psychiatric drugs in addition to opioids was associated with a twofold increased risk of infant withdrawal, said lead researcher Krista Huybrechts. She's an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. In particular, antidepressants, benzodiazepines such as diazepam (Valium) and the seizure drug gabapentin (Neurontin) greatly increase the risk and severity of drug withdrawal symptoms in newborns when used with prescription opioids during pregnancy, ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 2, 2017 – Surgery patients are usually prescribed opioids to ease postoperative pain, but more than two-thirds end up with leftover narcotics and don't get rid of them, according to a new report. Moreover, most patients who have the extra opioid pills don't lock them away, but leave them accessible to possible abuse by others, the researchers said. "We were surprised to find that the number was as high as it was," said lead researcher Dr. Mark Bicket. He is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. "It's likely that we – as physicians who care for patients with pain after surgery – need to do a better job of educating patients about how to take pain medication, how to store that medication and what to do with it once they're done with the medication," Bicket added. Saving unneeded ... Read more

TUESDAY, Aug. 1, 2017 – Tighter U.S. government restrictions on prescription painkillers containing hydrocodone led to reduced use of opioid medications such as Vicodin, a new study says. Between 2007 and 2014, more prescriptions were written in the United States for Vicodin (hydrocodone-acetaminophen) than for any other medication. In order to tighten restrictions and reduce abuse, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in 2014 reclassified hydrocodone-containing products as schedule 2 controlled substances. Schedule 2 drugs are those with a high potential for abuse and dependence. Drugs in this group include cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl and oxycodone. Although hydrocodone prescriptions subsequently declined, it wasn't clear whether overall use changed, or whether addicts had simply begun using the drug illicitly, said researchers at University of California, San Diego Health. "We ... Read more

MONDAY, July 31, 2017 – More than one out of three average Americans used a prescription opioid painkiller in 2015, despite growing concerns these medicines are promoting widespread addiction and overdose deaths, a new federal study shows. Nearly 92 million U.S. adults, or about 38 percent of the population, took a legitimately prescribed opioid like OxyContin or Percocet in 2015, according to results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. "The proportion of adults who receive these medications in any year seemed startling to me," said study co-author Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. "It's an awful lot of people who take these, mostly for medical purposes, but within that a significant percentage end up misusing them," he added. The survey found that 11.5 million people, or nearly 5 percent of the population, misused ... Read more

MONDAY, July 31, 2017 – In yet another sign of just how deadly the U.S. opioid epidemic has become, researchers report a sevenfold increase in the number of drivers killed in car crashes while under the influence of prescription painkillers. Prescriptions for drugs such as oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicoprofen) and morphine have quadrupled, from 76 million in 1991 to nearly 300 million in 2014, so it's no surprise these medications are playing a growing role in highway deaths, the Columbia University researchers said. "The significant increase in proportion of drivers who test positive for prescription pain medications is an urgent public health concern," said lead researcher Stanford Chihuri. Prescription drugs can cause drowsiness, impaired thinking and slowed reaction times, which can interfere with driving skills, Chihuri said. "Prescription pain medications use and abuse ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, July 26, 2017 – While opioid abuse has fallen among younger Americans, the same cannot be said for older adults, a new government report shows. Opioid abuse includes either the use of heroin or illegal use of prescription opioid painkillers, such as oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet) and hydrocodone (Vicoprofen). Rates of opioid abuse among young adults – aged 18 to 25 – decreased from 11.5 percent in 2002 to 8 percent in 2014. But in adults 50 years and older, opioid abuse doubled, from 1 percent to 2 percent, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Overall, about 9.5 million adults had abused opioids in the past year, the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found. "These findings highlight the need for prevention programs for all ages, as well as to establish improved evidence-based treatment, screening and ... Read more

FRIDAY, July 21, 2017 – Nearly 1 in 5 American adults deals with a mental illness or substance abuse problem each year, a U.S. government study says. Oregon has the highest rate, and New Jersey the lowest, according to 2012-2014 data analyzed by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Overall, almost 44 million Americans 18 or older had a diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorder in the past year, researchers said. They reviewed national surveys on drug use and health. "The figures in SAMHSA's report remind us how important it is to take mental health as seriously as any other health condition," Kana Enomoto, SAMHSA acting deputy assistant secretary, said in an agency news release. The overall national rate of mental illness was about 18 percent. In Oregon, almost 23 percent of the state residents had any type of mental illness. Utah, ... Read more

TUESDAY, July 18, 2017 – Sometimes less really is more. New research suggests that when it comes to long-term use of opioid painkillers, cutting back on the dose of the drugs might improve pain and function, as well as boost quality of life. "As many as 10 million Americans use long-term opioid medications to manage chronic pain," said Dr. Joseph Frank. He's the lead author of the new study and a primary care physician at Denver's Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Opioid medications include oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet) and hydrocodone (Vicoprofen), Frank said. These medications may be prescribed long-term for the treatment of different chronic pain conditions, such as arthritis or low back pain. "Nationwide efforts to reduce opioid prescribing will have a big impact on these people, but little is known about the benefits and risks of reducing long-term opioid therapy. When taken ... Read more

THURSDAY, July 13, 2017 – Scientists who've developed a wide-ranging "action plan" to combat the U.S. opioid abuse epidemic warn there's no quick fix. Needed measures include tighter prescription practices, greater access to treatment, physician-patient education and research into alternatives to addictive painkillers, according to a new report released Thursday from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report's assessment "is a reassuring development, but long overdue," said Dr. Harshal Kirane, director of addiction services at Staten Island University Hospital, in New York City. "While public awareness of the opioid epidemic is growing, the mobilization of an effective infrastructure to adequately address the burden of illness still lags far behind," Kirane said. This report provides a road map for future action from local agencies up to national ... Read more